The month of April has been completely chaotic for me. Little to no progress has been made on the VN and I fear that I haven't had the chance to draw as much. It's mostly because of work. I'm still working on a big project alone and my downtime in the office is non-existent now. When I get home I just mostly try to relax, but I have trouble doing even that!
Backstory
Like many people, my room is my sanctuary from the outside world. However, I have a few issues with my room that I've never formally addressed. This room became my own right before the start of the pandemic in 2020 and saying it was properly furnished would be generous. There was a lot of clutter that I eventually cleaned out.
With the stimulus money, I bought a cheap mattress and incredibly cheap furniture from Amazon and within a few days I had a room that at least looked like my own. During the pandemic I spent a lot of time at my computer and didn't really have a lot of keepsakes. As time went on and I got better jobs, my spending habits became less rigid and now I have a very cluttered room again.
Observations
One of the biggest culprits of my room becoming cluttered was the Pokemon craze that arose during the pandemic. I started my collection and on top of that I wanted to explore selling online as a TCG shop. It worked for a little bit, but it was ultimately unsustainable. My room was quickly filled with shipping boxes and mailing supplies on top of the sealed product and loose cards I was trying to sell on my shop.
I even bought a cheap table from Amazon to dedicate space to my new hobby. It didn't take long for my table to get cluttered as well. It's more or less a shelf now with a bunch of unsorted crap on it.
Despite this, I figured my problem was that my room was too small.
My room is about 12'x12', which isn't the biggest space, but I've made it work to some extent. I didn't really start looking into redecorating my room until I woke up on Monday and told myself that I wish I had a different mattress. The cheap mattress I had bought came with a free bed frame that was the wrong size. It's not the end of the world, but it's just one of a bunch of tiny awkward things about my room that doesn't feel right.
I kept thinking about getting a new mattress and ended up finding a site dedicated to teaching you most of what you have to know about shopping for one. They also have a whole community of mattress experts to help you out. Of course, this is only for the US (as far as I can tell).
While looking for a mattress I figured that I should get a nicer bed frame as well. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was on IKEA's website making a mock-up of my redesigned room using their furniture.
It had been a while since I had stepped into an IKEA. Actually, there was one purchase that stood out during my Amazon furniture purchasing spree. It was a wardrobe from IKEA. Why did I choose IKEA? I really don't remember. But I love this wardrobe. It's sturdy and it stands out in my room because of how good it is in terms of build quality.
So thinking of my wardrobe, I figured it'd be nice to have furniture with a similar level of quality.
Over the last week, I think I spent 2-3 days redesigning my room. And this weekend, I decided to visit IKEA in-person to get a feel of the furniture that I was so eager to buy.
After my trip, I came home with a list of several pieces of furniture that I wanted to try in the IKEA designer app on their website. In the end, I just swapped a single piece out because it had more storage.
My approach for the redesign is to buy multi-purpose furniture that also has storage options. For example, I made sure that the TV stand that I picked out has drawers. Or that any bookcase that I bought was tall enough. I shared my design with a friend and he said it felt a little cramped for his taste, but I think I did the best I could do with the space I have.
So, I'm all good then, right? No!
As much as I wish that my room were empty, that is simply not the case. I'm currently in the process of packing everything I have into boxes and breaking down the cheap furniture that I bought all those years ago. That process has been taking me down memory lane and making me aware of how much crap I own. There's a pile in my room with stuff that I plan on selling or donating. I'll also need to schedule a pickup for some of the furniture since it's too elaborate to just throw out. This is going to take a while ...
Goals with the Redesign
Before my redesign, I thought that I had to move in order to feel like I could own my space again. Starting over in a new apartment would feel nice, but I'm currently getting a good deal where I'm living now.
I don't believe that my problem was ever with the size of the room itself, rather, I never learned how to properly make the most out of the space I have. My parents aren't fully to blame, but they had a really bad habit of buying storage containers and stacking them instead of using proper shelves. Like, I remember my mom's TV being on top of a plastic dresser and I never questioned it.
My other goal is for my room to reflect who I currently am.
I'd like my room to also help me in my creative process and a sanctuary where I can truly relax. I think I'll post before/after pictures once the process is over. For now though, wish me luck! I have a lot of furniture to get rid of, ugh ...